Tag: prehistoric sites

Villa Real, Jesmond, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland

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Cist (destroyed):  OS Grid Reference – NZ 260 656

Archaeology & History

Urn of Villa Real

All remains of this prehistoric burial site have obviously long since fallen into only the vaguest of memory, but its incidence deserves reviving for those who may live nearby and seek for a place where our truly ancient ancestors once faired.  Here, beneath the modern buildings of homo-profanus, less than a mile north-east of Newcastle city centre, a small prehistoric burial chamber, or cist, was uncovered quite accidentally by a Mr Russell Blackbird (1832) in the first-half of the 19th century.  In a letter to the newly-formed (as it was back then) Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle in April of that year he told,

“In trenching some ground for planting, this morning, we discovered a stone vault, 4 feet long by 2 feet wide, and 20 inches deep, deposited in a dry hard marl below the soil, which we were  taking out for making the walks in the garden. It contained the bones of a man, the head, in particular, quite perfect, with all the teeth in it.  Also a small urn (was found)… There was some red-coloured earth in the urn which the labourers threw out.”

Mr Blackbird sent the antiquarian society a sketch of the urn that he and his colleagues discovered, reproduced here.

References:

  1. Blackbird, Russell, “Account of the Discovery of a Stone Vault and Urn, at Villa Real, Jesmond,” in Archaeologia Aeliana, volume 2, 1832.

Acknowledgements:  Huge thanks for use of the Ordnance Survey map in this site profile, reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland. 

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Reva Hill (8), Hawksworth, West Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 152 434

Getting Here

Naathen… I’d give you the directions of how to find this stone, but I’m not sure of its precise location.  Just get to the top of Reva Hill, on its more westerly side, and it’s somewhere on its upper slopes.  I was up here again recently and hoped to find it, but the grasses might have grown back over it.  If one of you petroglyph fans manages to locate it, please can you send me its exact grid-reference, so I can update the site profile.

Carving when wet
Faint Reva Hill carving
Carving when wet

Archaeology & History

This was one in a cluster of carvings that were rediscovered in 2011 and which I’ve not managed to re-locate (bad boy).  It’s very plain and simple, as you can see.  Indeed, I was lucky to even notice it, as the central photograph above shows how faint and eroded the cup-marks are in normal light.  Thankfully with a bit of water, what I initially thought may have been two cup-marks, turned into three or four of them.  So the next time you’re having a look at the Fraggle Rock carving and its companions, remember that this little fella is hiding somewhere close by…

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Green Crag Slack (356a), Ilkley Moor, West Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 13665 46014

Getting Here

Carving 356a, Green Crag

From Cow & Calf Rocks, walk up the steep footpath and turn left (southeast) when it levels out on the edge of the moor.  Walk 250 yards along and, where the main path veers down to the road, just keep walking along in the same direction along the footpath that runs gradually uphill until, after 650 yards (595m) you’ll eventually meet up with the footpath that runs along the moorland proper.  Where these two paths meet-up, then head upwards (south) into the heather for 55 yards (50m) until you see a good-size sloping block of stone with a crack roughly down the middle.  If you hit the Little Haystack Rock (a big conspicuous stone) you’ve gon too far!

Archaeology & History

Shallow cupmarks visible

This is one of the many basic cup-marked stones you’ll find scattered all over these moors possessing (as it does) only two distinct cup-marks on its more northern half, although a possible faint third one needs looking at in better light.  When we were kids exploring this and other areas, single and double cup-marked stones like this seemed ten-a-penny and we’d flippantly pass them by after quick perusal, looking for more impressive designs.

The carving here seems to have been missed in the surveys of Hedges (1986) and Boughey & Vickerman (2003), despite the rock standing out quite distinctly.  I can only assume that they checked it out when the skies were grey and dull, making the cup-marks difficult to see.  A number of other prehistoric remains can be found close to this carving, including cairns and sections of enclosure walling.

Folklore

Tradition tells that the indigenous Britons had a battle with the Romans on the plain where this carving is found.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Castle Gate, Burley Moor, West Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 134 440

Archaeology & History

During a walk I did with a small group of people in the Spring of 2024, after a series of heavy rainfalls we ended up having to veer on and off the footpath to ensure we didn’t get swallowed in one of the bogs!  In doing so, one of the group, Sarah Walker, noticed a small, almost portable-sized stone sticking up out of the edge of a peat-bog with a very distinct single cup-marking on it. (it may have been on its way as an offering stone to the Little Skirtful cairn)  Sarah twizzzled it round a few times in the mud so we could get some good photos of it before we went on our way to the circle at Horncliffe.  We didn’t get an exact position for the stone, but it can be found somewhere roughly over halfway between Roms Law and Horncliffe, not far off the path.  Good luck!

Acknowledgements:  Big thanks to Sarah Walker for stumbling across and uncovering this cup-marking, deep in the moorland mud.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Eaves Crag, Baildon Moor, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 15073 40440

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.50 (Hedges)
  2. Carving no.194 (Boughey & Vickerman)

Getting Here

Eaves Crag carving

Take the road up through Baildon village, across at the roundabout up Northgate and up onto the moor, then after a few hundred yards turn left on the Bingley Road.  About five hundred yards along, keep your eyes peeled for where the ruined reservoirs are to the left-side of the road.  Straight across the road from here (north) you’ll see the small cliffs of Eaves Crag.  Walk along the footpath that runs above the cliffs and, about 80 yards past them, keep your eyes peeled on the ground right in the middle of the path.  You can’t really miss it!

Archaeology & History

Basic cup-and half-ring

First mentioned in passing in the magnum opus of W. Paley Baildon (1913) and subsequently in one of Sidney Jackson’s (1955) series of profiles on the Baildon Moor carvings, this all but insignificant carving comprises of a simple cup-and-half-ring and another singular cup-mark a little further along the stone.  John Hedges (1986) described this carving as being a “well marked cup surrounded by horseshoe groove – also well marked.  Possible small cup and incomplete ring.”  Whilst the minimalists Boughey & Vickerman (2003) told it to be simply, “two cups, one with incomplete ring.”  A peculiarity with this design is that it might have been cut by a metal implement, perhaps in the Bronze Age, perhaps even in the Iron Age.  We might never know…

References:

  1. Baildon, W. Paley, Baildon and the Baildons – volume 1, St. Catherines: Adelphi 1913.
  2. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Wakefield 2003.
  3. Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks of Rombald’s Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
  4. Jackson, Sidney, ‘Cup and Ring Boulders of Baildon Moor,’ in Bradford’s Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, 1:10, 1955.

Acknowledgements:  Huge thanks for use of the Ordnance Survey map in this site profile, reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland. 

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Nut Head Wood, Steeton, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 03308 43184

Getting Here

Nut Head Wood carving

From Steeton village, go up Mill Lane, turning right and then bending up the steep Barrows Lane for a half-mile or so, where in turns into Redcar Lane.  There’s a row of old cottages on your left with a green lane track running into the fields at the back of them. Four fields along you’ll reach a long straight line of walling running uphill.  Up here, above and past the long geological stretch of quarried rocks, the land levels out and two trees sit next to each other by walling.  The carving’s beneath them.

Archaeology & History

Close-up of carving

Rediscovered in the summer of 2024 by Thomas Cleland, a deeply worn cup-mark is the primary feature of this petroglyph on the topmost section of the stone, with the remains of a faint incomplete ring around one side of it. Three or four other smaller cup-marks can be seen close to the main one.  There may be another cup-marked stone on an adjacent rock, with a lines running away from it, but we need to see that in better light or have one of the computer-tech doods to give it their attention to know for sure.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Lane End, Baildon, Shipley, West Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stone (destroyed):  OS Grid Reference – SE 152 393

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.195

Archaeology & History

A basic cup-marked stone could once be seen up near the top of the slope behind the Bay Horse pub as you’re heading up to Baildon village.  The site would seem to have been destroyed following the demolition of buildings thereby.  A photograph of the carving was taken and it was described, albeit briefly, by Sidney Jackson (1961), who told:

“A small boulder with two cups in it was found at the junction of a narrow bye road leading to 30 Lane Ends, Baildon, with the road which runs behind the Bay Horse Inn, on 12 April (1961), by Mr Alan E. Rowe, 10 Beaufort Grove, Bolton, Bradford  and a photograph of it was taken for the Museum Reference Collection.”

Years back I contacted the Bradford Museum about this photo and they were about as helpful as a zionist in Palestine! – i.e., I never got to see it.  It would be good if someone could locate the image.

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Wakefield 2003.
  2. Jackson, Sidney, “Cup-marked Boulders, Baildon Finds,” in Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, volume 6, no. 6, 1961.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

The Spinsters’ Rock, Drewsteignton, Devon

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Dolmen:  OS Grid Reference – SX 70092 90783

Also Known as:

  1. Drewsteignton (1)

Archaeology & History

Highlighted on Benjamin Donn’s map of Devon in 1765, this impressive neolithic dolmen consists of three large granite support stones between 5 ft 7 in and 7 ft 7 in tall, surmounted by a large capstone measuring 15 feet by 10 feet.  It collapsed in 1862 but was restored later the same year.

 

Folklore

In Murray’s (1851) Handbook for Travellers he told the following tale of the site:

This interesting old monument derives its name from a whimsical tradition that three spinsters (who were spinners) erected it one morning before breakfast; but “may we not,”* says Mr. Rowe (Peramb. of Dartmoor), “detect in this legend of the three fabulous spinners the terrible Valkyriur of the dark mythology of our Northern ancesters – the Fatal Sisters, the choosers of the slain, whose dread office was to ‘weave the warp and weave the woof of destiny.'”

Polwhele informs us that the legend varies, in that for the three spinsters some have substituted three young men and their father, who brought the stones from the highest part of Dartmoor; and in this phase of the legend has been traced an obscured tradition of Noah and his three sons.

.. The hill on which it stands commands an excellent view of Cawsand Beacon. About 100 yds. beyond the cromlech on the other (N.) side of the lane, is a pond of water, of about 3 acres, called Bradmere Pool, prettily situated in a wood. It is said to be unfathomable, and to remain full to the brim during the driest seasons, and some regard it as artificially formed and of high antiquity – in short a Druidical pool of lustration connected with the adjacent cromlech..

.. The country-people have a legend of a passage formed of large stones leading underground from Bradmere to the Teign, near the logan stone..

References:

  1. Baring-Gould, Sabine, A Book of Dartmoor, London 1900.
  2. Crossing, William, Gems in a Granite Setting, Western Morning News: Plymouth 1905.
  3. Falcon, T.A., Dartmoor Illustrated, James G. Comin: Exeter 1900.
  4. Murray, John, A Hand-book for Travellers in Devon & Cornwall, John Murray: London 1851.
  5. Ormerod, G. Waring, Notes on Rude Stone Remains Situate on the Easterly Side of Dartmoor, privately printed 1873.
  6. Page, John Lloyd Warden, An Exploration of Dartmoor and its Antiquities, Seeley: London 1892.
  7. Worth, R. Hansford, Worth’s Dartmoor, David & Charles: Newton Abbot 1967.

Acknowledgements:  Huge thanks for use of the Ordnance Survey map in this site profile, reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland. 

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Snowden Carr (570a), Timble, North Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 1777 5128

Getting Here

The stone in question

From the Askwith Moor car-park (SE 1757 5067), walk along the road north for a few hundred yards until you reach the gate on your right and head through the heather to the Death’s Head carving.  From here walk in a northwesterly direction up the gentle slope for 50-60 yards and, before reaching its crown, keep your eyes peeled for a low flat stone with a curvaceous crack running roughly halfway across it.  If the heather’s deep, you might not have a cat in hell’s chance of finding it!

Archaeology & History

This carving isn’t much to look at on two levels: i) it’s a pretty simplistic design with no rings, and (ii) it’s very faint and almost impossible to see until the light is just right—except for one of the cups, which itself might be natural (there are a few like that amidst the Askwith complex).  It’s very much a carving for the purists among you, as I always say.  Nonetheless, for the record:

Crap sketch of design

Faint cups visible

The most notable element is the single “cup mark” on the more easterly section of the stone, on one side of the natural crack.  It catches your eye and is what makes you give the stone a little more attention, although I couldn’t make up my mind whether this was Nature’s handiwork or humans.  It may be a bit of both.  On the other side the crack we can see a small group of very faint eroded cup-marks — just!  What seems to be three of them cluster in a small triangle formation, but one of these may be natural (tis hard to say for sure), with another isolated cup closer to the crack, and a final one further to the outer edge of the stone.  All are very faint but stood out when the sun was low on our recent visit here.  Give it your attention when you’re next having a look at the settlement and cairnfield close by.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Snowden Carr, Askwith Moor, North Yorkshire

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Ring Cairn:  OS Grid Reference – SE 1786 5129

Getting Here

Low remains of cairn mass

From the Askwith Moor car-park (SE 1757 5067), walk along the road north for several hundred yards and go through the gate on your right.  Head northeast through the heather to the Death’s Head carving and keep along the same direction for barely another hundred yards onto the ever-so-slight crown of a small hillock.  This is a hut circle you’re standing in/on.  A few yards away just to the southeast of where you’re standing is the very denuded remains of this ring cairn.

Archaeology & History

Low remains of rubble wall

Not visible when the heather’s in full growth, it’s nonetheless worth visiting if you’re trying to get a picture of the prehistoric landscape hereby.  Less than 10 yards southeast of the notable hut circle on the small crown of a hill, it was first noticed by Sarah Walker on a group visit here recently.  Roughly 12 yards across, the most notable section of the circle is the remains of the rubble bank on its east and southeastern sides, raised a few feet above ground level.  The majority of the monument comprises of a scatter of various rocks and small stones within and round the edges of the circle.  There’s a lot of scattering from other adjacent remains, such as the hut circle and nearby walling, that give the initial impression of it being little more than a spurious mess of stone; but the more you walk around and inside it, the more you come to recognize its structure.

It has that Bronze Age hallmark look about it, but without an excavation this is just educated guesswork.  It might actually be older.  The widespread mass of prehistoric remains all round here shows that it was once a mass of activity in prehistoric times.  It’s a brilliant area, even if you can’t find this particular site!

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian